Fremont, California, 16 January 2019: Broadband Forum has launched a new project – Broadband Quality Experience Delivered (Broadband QED) – which will be led by Vodafone and Predictable Network Solutions (PNSol). The initiative brings together one of the Broadband Forum’s oldest members with one of its newest to create an “invisible” network that will greatly enhance the quality of experience broadband networks provide.

Focused on addressing factors such as latency, consistency, predictability and reliability, Broadband QED will use Quality Attenuation to look beyond just data rate and deliver greater insight into quality of experience and application outcomes. Quality Attenuation is a framework for capturing, measuring, managing and manipulating the performance aspects of networks, as well as the services they enable.

Vodafone and PNSol will take the lead on the work after initiating the project at the Broadband Forum’s latest quarterly meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, and will be joined by a variety of other Forum members who are global leaders in the access and testing domains. Vodafone has already trialed Quality Attenuation over a range of fixed access technologies in its own network and has successfully used it to identify broadband performance characteristics that “traditional” packet layer performance techniques and tools failed to reveal.

“As an industry we’ve increased the speed of broadband to one gigabit and beyond, which is a remarkable achievement, but we now have to look beyond speed,” said Gavin Young, Head of Fixed Access Centre of Excellence at Vodafone. “Historically, we have looked at data rate and ping time but now, as new applications place more strain on networks, we need to make the network invisible so users don’t even know it is there – we want to get to a place where everything just works. That means we need to improve other aspects of quality such as latency, consistency, predictability and reliability, ultimately moving from a fast network to an invisible network.”

The project will deliver a study document giving a comprehensive overview of Broadband QED and its applicability to broadband networks. This will cover the theory, measurement technique, use-cases and benefits of the approach. The second phase will consider specific applicability to the various Broadband Forum Work Areas.

The Broadband QED project is just one part of Broadband Forum’s focus on quality of experience. A recently published Market Report on Application Layer Testing (ALT) highlighted that the confluence of new networking technologies, architectures, and applications is creating an urgent need for standards in ALT. The ultimate goal of this would be to enable operators to deliver better, more consistent quality of experience to end-users.

“Our renewed focus on network quality of experience emphasizes Broadband Forum’s commitment to ensuring the whole network – from the Cloud Central Office to the Connected Home – is prepared for growing technologies and trends such as 5G and proliferation of connected devices,” said Geoff Burke, Broadband Forum CMO. “Broadband QED is an excellent initiative which marks a significant turning point for broadband as operators begin to turn their attention from speed to other elements of connectivity to create a world-class broadband experience for their customers.”

A video interview reviewing the market and business drivers of the Broadband QED project, featuring PNSol CEO Neil Davies and Gavin Young, can be found here.

Operators, vendors, and analysts interested in participating in this project can find information on Broadband Forum membership here.

About the Broadband Forum

Broadband Forum is the communications industry’s leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development. Our members’ passion – delivering on the promise of broadband by enabling smarter and faster broadband networks and a thriving broadband ecosystem.

A non-profit industry organization composed of the industry’s leading broadband operators, vendors, and thought leaders, our work to date has been the foundation for broadband’s global proliferation and innovation. For example, the Forum’s flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has nearly 1 billion installations worldwide.

Broadband Forum working groups collaborate to define best practices for global networks, enable new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establish technology migration strategies, and engineer critical device, service & development management tools in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models, interoperability and certification in the broadband market.

Glasgow, Scotland, December 20, 2018: Amazon Alexa Voice Services UK General Manager Theunis Scheepers keynoted Broadband Forum’s fourth quarter meeting last week in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, where he told the packed audience that device compatibility is essential in order to maximize the selection of available devices, which in turn drives mass adoption of the connected home market.

Scheepers’ keynote kicked off a busy week that saw another keynote from Huw Saunders, Director of Network Infrastructure at the UK’s broadband regulatory and competition authority Ofcom, a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session focused on “Powering in an Ultra-Fast World”, and major progress made within projects across all work areas and Open Broadband initiatives, including in areas like 5G, the User Services Platform (USP) and CloudCO.

The line-up of keynote presentations, special sessions, and meetings was just part of the activity at Broadband Forum’s quarterly meeting, as the Forum announced another industry first in the connected home market - the completion of its brand-new Wi-Fi In-Premises Performance test plan. Designed to establish carrier grade performance requirements for Wi-Fi APs, the new plan provides operators with the tools needed to select the best possible products for their networks.

The Broadband Forum Q4 meeting was also host to the first official meeting of Broadband Forum’s new O&M Automation and Intelligence project, which aims to define specifications for service providers looking to leverage Artificial Intelligence and Big Data techniques within their operations and management processes.

“It’s a very exciting time in the broadband industry, as we’re faced with an unprecedented and exciting period of technological upheaval,” said Robin Mersh, CEO of Broadband Forum. “In all of this, the scope and breadth of our work is continuously expanding. I’m proud to say that the Broadband Forum is playing a key role in ensuring the whole network, from the Cloud to the Connected Home, is enhancing the subscriber experiences of both the 1 billion broadband homes already connected, and hasten the connection of the next billion.”

- ENDS -

About the Broadband Forum

Broadband Forum is the communications industry’s leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development. Our members’ passion – delivering on the promise of broadband by enabling smarter and faster broadband networks and a thriving broadband ecosystem.

A non-profit industry organization composed of the industry’s leading broadband operators, vendors, and thought leaders, our work to date has been the foundation for broadband’s global proliferation and innovation. For example, the Forum’s flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has nearly 1 billion installations worldwide.

Broadband Forum working groups collaborate to define best practices for global networks, enable new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establish technology migration strategies, and engineer critical device, service & development management tools in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models, interoperability and certification in the broadband market.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to https://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or brian.dolby@proactive-pr.com or Jayne Brooks on +44 (0) 1636 704 888 or jayne.brooks@proactive-pr.com.

... The unification of open source with open standards will be essential to the efficient and cost-effective delivery of emerging broadband access technologies and services ...

Broadband Forum: “The next era of broadband relies on open source and standards joining forces – now is the time to move forward together” Berlin, Germany - October 24, 2018: The unification of open source with open standards will be essential to the efficient and cost-effective delivery of emerging broadband access technologies and services, Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said today.

Speaking during Broadband World Forum 2018, Mersh highlighted the agility and speed of open source as being crucial for operators looking to bring new programmability to their networks through virtualization and cloud-based techniques.

Standards, he said, are needed to converge the industry on common architecture and migration approaches, and on the equipment requirements needed to make new advanced services a reality. Thus, standards play a key role in providing the migration paths that safeguard operators’ existing asset investments and create opportunities for new service development and innovation.

“The future of broadband is dependent upon embracing the reality that open source and standards are interdependent,” said Mersh. “While the agility and speed of open source is a vital element in developing the infrastructure needed to support 5G, the connected home, cloudification and bandwidth-hungry business services, standards create the large addressable markets and evolution plans necessary to bring current broadband networks forward. The Broadband Forum, with its Open Broadband initiative, is making this future requirement a reality today.”

According to Mersh, operators looking to bring these qualities to their networks want to do so without unnecessarily disrupting their current environment.

“Operators don’t want to throw away the hundreds of billions of dollars invested in infrastructure they already have,” he continued. “This means we need to map open source innovations on to existing deployments so that new functionality can be added simply and with the highest possible return on invested capital and with minimal disruption to subscribers.”

Mersh emphasized the importance of marrying open source and standards development by highlighting a number of Broadband Forum initiatives which are being carried out with open source innovators in mind. Projects are either being developed cooperatively, using techniques developed by open source communities or developed with open source communities more directly.

Just last week, the Forum announced it is working with prpl Foundation to develop an open source reference implementation of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh™ specifications which will make it easier and faster to deliver intelligent, carrier grade, whole-home and small business broadband Wi-Fi coverage. The Broadband Forum’s Open Broadband Multi-Access Point (OB-MAP) project will ensure the software project is scalable to large service provider deployments via carrier grade manageability.

Referring to this during his presentation, entitled “The New Broadband Network – Powered by Open Standards and Open Source,” Mersh was quick to point out that marrying the two techniques must be bigger than just one project.

“The Broadband Forum has done this a number of times now and we have developed a good model,” he said. “Going forward, we have to take a holistic approach and we have to rapidly develop consensus – and, of course, that is what standardization is all about.”

Finishing his presentation with an invitation to the packed auditorium to visit the Broadband Forum Interop Pavilion on the exhibition floor of Broadband World Forum 2018 to view a live demonstration of another of the Forum’s initiatives which leverages open source, Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA), Mersh concluded his presentation with: “The next era of broadband relies on open standards and open source joining forces to dramatically change our industry. With these two elements, we see the potential to reach the full promise of broadband, achieved by leveraging the strengths of both to produce progress quickly, but in a structured environment that facilitates evolution.”

About the Broadband Forum

Broadband Forum is the communications industry’s leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development. Our members’ passion – delivering on the promise of broadband by enabling smarter and faster broadband networks and a thriving broadband ecosystem.

A non-profit industry organization composed of the industry’s leading broadband operators, vendors, and thought leaders, our work to date has been the foundation for broadband’s global proliferation and innovation. For example, the Forum’s flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has nearly 1 billion installations worldwide.

Broadband Forum working groups collaborate to define best practices for global networks, enable new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establish technology migration strategies, and engineer critical device, service & development management tools in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models, interoperability and certification in the broadband market.

There are now more than one billion fixed broadband subscribers worldwide, the Broadband Forum revealed today at Broadband World Forum 2018.

The achievement – which has been confirmed by leading market analysis firm Point Topic – follows the release of Point Topic’s World Broadband Statistics Q2 2018 report which saw the number of fixed broadband subscribers grow by 2.5 per cent from Q1 2018, the highest surge in the last six quarters.

“This is a truly outstanding achievement, led by the communications industry, that has resulted in a major leap forward for humankind,” said Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh. “Broadband connectivity is a cornerstone of modern life, and a catalyst for innovation and progress globally – I am proud of the key role that the Broadband Forum has played in facilitating this accomplishment. For broadband service providers, a billion installations represent an enormous opportunity for building new value on top of this foundation with new cloud-based services, enhanced efficiencies driven by virtualization and artificial intelligence, and sensational new experiences.

“That said, passing this milestone also means that the industry is now chipping away at the remaining one billion plus potential subscribers in the world that have a thirst for broadband but have yet to be connected. This represents another area of huge potential opportunity and growth – both for operators seeking new markets, as well as for improvements to the quality of life of these potential subscribers.”

Point Topic’s Q2 2018 report reveals the majority of new subscribers are now coming from less developed regions and countries. However, according to the report, growth in ARPU is being seen in developed markets, driven by improved offerings and services supported by gigabit-capable broadband.

The research also highlights that around 80% of global connections are fiber-based – including Fiber-to-the-Home/Business/Cabinet connections – or cable-based, while ADSL connections are continuing to decline, having dropped eight per cent in the last year.

“There is no doubt that we have now hit one billion broadband subscribers, with the growth over 2018 being quite rapid,” said Oliver Johnson, CEO, Point Topic Ltd. “In more saturated broadband markets, operators are focusing on upgrades to support gigabit broadband as they prepare to meet the requirements of new technologies such as IoT and the needs of more demanding consumers.

“What is also interesting is that the number of broadband subscribers nearly exactly correlates with installations of the Broadband Forum’s TR-069 protocol, which currently sits at nearly one billion deployments. This shows how critical broadband standards are and the important role TR-069 has played in fostering the ecosystem and creating the mass market that stimulated broadband innovation and subscriber adoption.”

The Broadband Forum announced the milestone during its Executive Workshop which is taking place on the opening day of Broadband World Forum 2018. It will also demonstrate its evolution of TR-069 for the IoT world, User Services Platform (USP), and its ‘open source’ initiative, Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA), at the Broadband World Forum’s Interop Pavilion.

Broadband Forum is the communications industry’s leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development. Our members’ passion – delivering on the promise of broadband by enabling smarter and faster broadband networks and a thriving broadband ecosystem.

A non-profit industry organization composed of the industry’s leading broadband operators, vendors, and thought leaders, our work to date has been the foundation for broadband’s global proliferation and innovation. For example, the Forum’s flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has nearly 1 billion installations worldwide.

Broadband Forum working groups collaborate to define best practices for global networks, enable new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establish technology migration strategies, and engineer critical device, service & development management tools in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models, interoperability and certification in the broadband market.

Point Topic exists to provide the best broadband market intelligence for our customers to make the best decisions possible.

We believe that broadband for all (broadband everywhere) is one of the greatest contributions our generation can make to the world. When businesses, people and governments can access the internet and interact at broadband bandwidths it is to everyone’s benefit. Point Topic is proud of our small but important contribution to the current and future spread of broadband across the globe.

Since 1998 we have gathered, analysed and published information sets that are used across the industry and beyond as the foundation of reporting, planning and strategy. We strive to provide insight, context, sourcing and transparent reporting so our users can follow the data inputs through to the information outputs with confidence.

The best strategies are based on the best information. Point Topic provides the foundation for intelligent decision making worldwide.

... New partnership will see Broadband Forum lead and grow the event with TNO playing a supporting role to ensure continuity and ongoing success ...

Broadband Forum takes reins of highly regarded Ultrafast Broadband Seminar from TNO Berlin, Germany - October 18, 2018: Broadband Forum today announced it will take the lead in organizing the Ultrafast Broadband Seminar 2019 as it entered into a new partnership with TNO.

Focused on thought leadership, innovation and sharing best industry practices for mass broadband deployment, the three-day Ultrafast Broadband Seminar has established a reputation for excellence and built a strong following over its ten-year history. Last year's event attracted around 150 attendees, and included operators, regulators, R&D engineers, equipment manufacturers, analysts and standards organizations from around the globe.

TNO and Broadband Forum have agreed that, starting in 2019, Broadband Forum will take the lead in organizing the annual seminar – which will continue to take place in The Hague – while TNO will stay on board as a partner to ensure continuity in the program quality and event content.

"The Broadband Forum and TNO have collaborated over many years to develop this world-class broadband seminar and I'm delighted that TNO will remain a key part of this event going forward," said Kevin Foster, Chairman of the Broadband Forum. "I look forward to future events in the beautiful city of The Hague which will be based on TNO's successful recipe honed over the last decade."

Broadband Forum has been a co-organizer of the Ultrafast Broadband Seminar since its inception in 2009. Transferring the organization of the Ultrafast Broadband Seminar from Dutch technology institute TNO to Broadband Forum will widen the global audience for the event.

Berry Vetjens, Director Market ICT at TNO, said: "Offering a range of keynote speeches and break-out sessions, the Ultrafast Broadband Seminar has always proved very popular and in evaluations, the seminar scores are consequently very high for overall content and networking opportunities. With Broadband Forum's standing in the industry and its wide scope of work and membership, we are confident that this new agreement will see the event reach new heights and secure its continued success for many years to come."

The Ultrafast Broadband Seminar 2019 will be held in The Hague from June 25 to 27. For more information, about the event and to view video highlights from the Ultrafast Broadband Seminar 2018, please see: https://www.ultrafastbroadband.nl/.

About the Broadband ForumBroadband Forum is the communications industry's leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development. Our members' passion – delivering on the promise of broadband by enabling smarter and faster broadband networks and a thriving broadband ecosystem.

A non-profit industry organization composed of the industry's leading broadband operators, vendors, and thought leaders, our work to date has been the foundation for broadband's global proliferation and innovation. For example, the Forum's flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has nearly 1 billion installations worldwide.

Broadband Forum working groups collaborate to define best practices for global networks, enable new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establish technology migration strategies, and engineer critical device, service & development management tools in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models, interoperability and certification in the broadband market.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to https://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or brian.dolby@proactive-pr.com or Jayne Brooks on +44 (0) 1636 704 888 or jayne.brooks@proactive-pr.com.

About TNOThe Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) is an independent research organization. We connect people and knowledge to create innovations that boost the sustainable competitive strength of industry and well-being of society. Now and in the future. This is our mission and it is what drives us, the over 3.000 professionals at TNO, in our work every day. We work in collaboration with partners and focus on transitions or changes in nine social themes that we have identified together with our stakeholders.

TNO Information & Communication TechnologyICT is offering excellent opportunities to solve all kinds of societal challenges, ensuring innovation and continuing economic growth. It is a key area for many sectors and other technologies. The rapid digital transformation of our society requires a framework for action. TNO's ambition is to help its clients to achieve complex digital transformations, using its knowledge of technology, policy and business models.

ICT innovation is everywhere. It is being used to improve road safety and solve the problem of traffic congestion for example, because ICT systems are capable of exchanging data so quickly and reliably that self-driving cars are becoming feasible. Another trend is that more and more people are collecting data about their health status - enabled partly through smart sensors in devices and software systems that can take measurements and make decisions.

Technological breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cryptography, algorithms and quantum computers are all coming together to produce ICT innovations.

The Information & Communication Technology unit works for clients in fields such as telecoms, banks, defence and security, industry, energy, construction, healthcare, mobility and logistics. We are also seeking out cooperation with knowledge partners and other TNO units.

... Breakthrough solutions from 17 of Broadband Forum’s member companies will be showcased at the Broadband World Forum 2018 Interop Pavilion ...

BBWF 2018: Broadband Forum to premiere USP and OB-BAA demos at Interop Pavilion and host strategic Executive Workshop Berlin, Germany - October 17, 2018: Breakthrough solutions from 17 of Broadband Forum’s innovative member companies – including the first-ever live demonstrations of the Broadband Forum’s ground-breaking User Services Platform (USP) and its open source Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA) initiative – will be showcased at the Broadband World Forum 2018 Interop Pavilion.

In addition, the Broadband Forum will host an Executive Workshop on the morning of Tuesday, 23 October to focus on the progress made to date in marrying open software with open standards and develop a plan for the industry to further accelerate convergence. Several major operators, vendors, software consortia, ecosystem partners and analysts will join the discussion, led by speakers and panelists from:

USP and OB-BAA underline the increased collaboration, agility, and value that Broadband Forum is bringing to the broadband industry as it develops consensus around next-generation networks. Its ongoing work integrates the latest and upcoming trends, such as virtualization and cloudification, to provide the basis for a broadband infrastructure which is equipped for the next era of services, from the connected home to 5G.

Open-source innovations and software-based projects have been embraced, while the business case for service providers remains at the center of Broadband Forum’s ethos. The organization now wants to further unify open-source and open standards.

“Two years ago, we brought together ten service providers to share their latest thinking on broadband networks and that set us off on a journey which has led us to the very exciting position we are in today,” said Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh. “By leveraging the best of both open source and open standards, we can map the innovation taking place on to service providers’ existing infrastructures, ensuring they can upgrade their networks cost-effectively and efficiently, with minimal disruption to end-users. With our Executive Workshop and ground-breaking solutions on show at the Interop Pavilion, Broadband World Forum 2018 will be the epicenter for a number of Broadband Forum hosted events that will shake the communications industry to its core.”

The demonstrations of USP and OB-BAA will follow the workshop, showcasing just some of the results achieved by Broadband Forum in the connected home space and in accelerating the deployment of cloud-based access infrastructure and services.

ARRIS, Greenwave Systems, and QA Cafe will demo USP, which evolves Broadband Forum’s globally-embraced TR-069 protocol to bring a unified approach for implementing, deploying and managing all types of devices in the connected home.

“The Broadband Forum USP is needed for any service provider seeking to embrace the opportunity, and overcome the complexity, of the modern connected home,” said John Blackford, member of the Broadband Forum’s Board of Directors and Co-Director of the Broadband User Services Work Area. “With advanced features like multi-tenant management and control, user self-management and control, enhanced privacy, and robust and secure communications, it is primed to meet the demands of an IoT world. Best of all, it can co-exist with TR-069 and was built on the TR-181 data model, making it both compatible and easy to migrate for the nearly 1 billion TR-069 installations that already exist.”

The OB-BAA demo will be provided by Huawei and Nokia and highlight the progress made within the Broadband Forum in embracing open source initiatives. OB-BAA enables standardized, automated and accelerated deployment of new cloud-based access infrastructure and services. The first code release and documentation from the initiative was published in August.

“OB-BAA facilitates co-existence and seamless migration, bringing the agility to adapt to a wide variety of software defined access models as they become defined by vendors and providers in a potentially vast market,” said Tim Carey, Chair of the BAA project. “Inherent in this project is the ability to pull differing access device types, including legacy implementation, together under a single network and service management and control umbrella to be exposed to management elements such as the SDN Management and/or Control and Element Management Systems. This project was designed to be deployed within the Broadband Forum’s CloudCO environment as one or more virtualized network functions, and thus can also be adapted and deployed in other virtualized environments.”

Further insight into the unification of open source and open standards will be provided by Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh during his keynote presentation “The New Broadband Network – Powered by Open Standards and Open Source.” This takes place as part of Broadband World Forum’s Open Telco track at 2.30pm on Wednesday, 24 October.

About the Broadband ForumBroadband Forum is the communications industry’s leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development. Our members’ passion – delivering on the promise of broadband by enabling smarter and faster broadband networks and a thriving broadband ecosystem.

A non-profit industry organization composed of the industry’s leading broadband operators, vendors, and thought leaders, our work to date has been the foundation for broadband’s global proliferation and innovation. For example, the Forum’s flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has nearly 1 billion installations worldwide.

Broadband Forum working groups collaborate to define best practices for global networks, enable new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establish technology migration strategies, and engineer critical device, service & development management tools in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models, interoperability and certification in the broadband market.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to https://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or brian.dolby@proactive-pr.com or Jayne Brooks on +44 (0) 1636 704 888 or jayne.brooks@proactive-pr.com.

... Broadband Forum and the prpl Foundation to develop an open-source reference implementation of the Wi-Fi Alliance® Multi-AP Specification ...

New Open-Source Initiative Led by Broadband Forum and prpl Foundation Speeds Deployment of Intelligent Wi-Fi Mesh NetworksFremont, Calif. - October 16, 2018: Broadband Forum and the prpl Foundation today announced a new partnership to develop an open-source reference implementation of the Wi-Fi Alliance® Multi-AP Specification. The goal is to make it easier and faster for service providers and retail Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to develop Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh™ products and to deliver intelligent, carrier grade, whole-home and small business coverage.

As consumers and businesses alike demand faster and higher-capacity Wi-Fi® throughout the entire home and office, mesh networks are growing in popularity to deliver uniform coverage to all corners of residential and commercial premises. The new reference implementation from Broadband Forum and the prpl Foundation will be based on the Wi-Fi Alliance Multi-AP Specification, which brings together multiple mesh routers to form a unified network that provides smart, efficient Wi-Fi throughout homes and businesses. An open-source effort, this ground-breaking initiative further accelerates time-to-market by providing a software foundation upon which service providers and OEMs can quickly and easily develop and deploy carrier grade mesh Wi-Fi systems which may be submitted for testing under the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh™ program.

The open-source reference implementation will be hosted by the prpl Foundation, with both organizations’ members contributing to the project. Alongside this, the Broadband Forum has launched the Open Broadband Multi-AP project, a leading-edge initiative with the goal of ensuring that the software of open-source innovators, like prpl Foundation, and their mesh software projects will be scalable to large service provider deployments via carrier grade manageability. The two organizations will foster a vibrant open-source community to contribute and maintain the reference implementation.

“An open-source approach will greatly speed the deployment of multi-vendor mesh networks for efficient, self-configuring, whole-home Wi-Fi coverage,” said prpl Foundation President Art Swift. “The prplMesh project is intended to make it easy for service providers and OEMs to develop interoperable Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh products.”

Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said: “Whether it’s VR, AR, UHD TV, 5G-based services, artificial intelligence, or any of a myriad of cutting-edge new technologies and services, technology-savvy consumers are demanding that services leveraging these innovations incorporate the highest standard of Wi-Fi, backed by a world-class fixed broadband infrastructure. This new project will enable home and small business network coverage to be seamlessly expanded via open-source software, saving the expense of rebuilding access points from scratch. Furthermore, as end-user expectations continue to rise, Wi-Fi upgrades will become commensurately simpler and more cost-efficient.”

“Wi-Fi Alliance applauds the efforts by prpl Foundation and Broadband Forum to accelerate the development of devices implementing the Wi-Fi Alliance Multi-AP Specification,” said Kevin Robinson, VP Marketing at Wi-Fi Alliance. “Device vendors will benefit from the accelerated time to certification for the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh™ program, providing solutions to market quickly.”

Peter Joyce, Director Connectivity CPE Architecture at Liberty Global, added: "Standardization of communication and data in residential Multi-AP environments will help Liberty Global and other service providers provide increasingly effective support and management of customers’ in-home networks. The recently released Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMesh certification program will play an important role in standardizing the communication element. The development of an open-source implementation of the underlying standard will be key to enhancing the adoption rate, and Liberty Global fully supports the initiative."

prplMesh Controllers and Agents will be based upon the Wi-Fi Alliance Multi-AP Specification, and may be submitted for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh testing, making prplMesh easy to integrate into various product platforms. Equipment manufacturers will also be able to easily extend the architecture for product differentiation, for example, with different transmission prioritization or different signal broadcasting capabilities.

The Broadband Forum intends to lead and manage the development of carrier grade interfaces to service provider management systems, including new management data models needed to manage networks with Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh devices. The Broadband Forum is also addressing TR-069/TR-369 management of ISP-provided devices.

A number of service providers, OEMs, and technology vendors will contribute to the prplMesh project, including Altran, ARRIS International plc, ASSIA, AT&T, BT, CableLabs, Dasan Zhone (DZS), Greenwave Systems, Huawei, Intel, Iopsys, Liberty Global, MaxLinear, MediaTek, Nokia, Plume, QA Cafe, Quantenna, SmartRG, SoftAtHome, and Vodafone. The Broadband Forum and prpl Foundation also welcome new memberships from companies who would like to get involved in the work.

Charles Cheevers, CTO of Customer Premises Equipment at ARRIS, said: "Our customers are looking for standards-based solutions based on open-source. We recently achieved a milestone as a developer of the world's first Wi-Fi Certified EasyMesh solution. We are pleased to take this one step further with support of an open-source reference implementation to advance the solution to the next version."

Philip Yim, Chief Operating Officer at DZS, said: “DZS believes that carriers need freedom of choice in order to provide their customers the broadband internet connection experience they have come to expect. Open-source increases choices for broadband providers, particularly when there is vibrant collaboration among innovators, as is the case in this Wi-Fi prplMesh initiative. Concurrently, it allows technology vendors to add value and differentiate offerings to further improve business agility for carriers.”

WK Tan, Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Connected Home Division, said: “Mesh Wi-Fi networks give consumers what they want – fast, reliable connectivity in all corners of the home. Speeding up deployment of these networks is essential and the prplMesh effort is a great step forward to both quicken and simplify development.”

Will Torgerson, Vice President & General Manager of MaxLinear’s Broadband Group, said: “MaxLinear envisioned a future of home networking using Multi-AP systems, where OB-MAP can enable multiple wireless access points interconnected through the best available backhaul technology (e.g., Wi-Fi, G.hn, MoCA). We contributed and supported the development of the IEEE 1905.1a open-source stack for home networking devices and are now excited to continue this effort as part of the Broadband Forum’s Open Broadband Multi-AP project adapting the software stack to support Multi-AP technology in a carrier-grade environment.”

Bill McFarland, CTO of Plume, said: “Plume enthusiastically supports the development of an open-source implementation of Wi-Fi Multi-AP. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh devices based on the Wi-Fi Multi-AP standard integrate into Plume’s service curation and management framework and complement the benefits of cloud driven in-home mesh networking. With the addition of this new open-source solution, we believe it could dramatically accelerate the adoption of these modern networks.”

Ambroise Popper, Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Marketing at Quantenna, said: “Quantenna is committed to supporting this open-source implementation with its expertise and financially. The completion of this project will make it possible for ISPs, CPE manufacturers and Wi-Fi vendors to have a validated reference code of a Wi-Fi Multi-AP Agent, which is easier to maintain and enhance, and allows each of them to focus on innovation through competitive Wi-Fi Multi-AP Controllers.”

SoftAtHome CTO Wojtek Makowski said: “We're proud to have a leadership role in getting this effort off the ground with Broadband Forum and the prpl Foundation. We are now on the way toward a standardized open-source implementation so that ISPs will extend their ability to bring cutting-edge digital home offerings to their subscribers. These new solutions focus on highly improved end-to-end user experience. They will play an important role, enabling ISPs to remotely manage the delivery of high-quality broadband connectivity and services with whole-home coverage.”

About the Broadband ForumBroadband Forum is the communications industry’s leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development. Our members’ passion – delivering on the promise of broadband by enabling smarter and faster broadband networks and a thriving broadband ecosystem.

A non-profit industry organization composed of the industry’s leading broadband operators, vendors, and thought leaders, our work to date has been the foundation for broadband’s global proliferation and innovation. For example, the Forum’s flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has nearly 1 billion installations worldwide.

Broadband Forum working groups collaborate to define best practices for global networks, enable new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establish technology migration strategies, and engineer critical device, service & development management tools in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models, interoperability and certification in the broadband market.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to http://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or brian.dolby@proactive-pr.com or Jayne Brooks on +44 (0) 1636 704 888 or jayne.brooks@proactive-pr.com.

About prpl Foundationprpl (pronounced “purple”) is a community driven, non-profit organization with a focus on enabling the security and interoperability of embedded devices for the IoT and smart society of the future. prpl represents leaders in the technology industry investing in innovation in efficiency, portability and compatibility for the good of a broad community of developers, businesses and consumers.

Cutting-edge innovations and lessons learned from the companies that are leading disruption in the communications industry will be on display at the Broadband Forum's latest Broadband Acceleration Seminar (BASe) series at the Encore Hotel in Las Vegas on Sunday, October 28, 2018.

The fifth event in the highly successful BASe series promises to be the largest and most insightful yet, with service provider insights shared by CityFibre, Google, SK Broadband, Telus, and others. Updates on pioneering technologies and solutions will be given by the breadth of the broadband ecosystem, ranging from established players like Arris, Calix, Corning, Huawei, Nokia, and Zyxel to a host of newcomers leading innovation in areas such as 5G transport and millimeter wave technologies, NG-PON2, Gfast, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the access network and connected home. Topics will be broken into four segments covering all aspects of broadband design, implementation and maintenance, from the central office to the cloud to the Connected Home. For a detailed agenda, click here.

Principal analyst Julie Kunstler, of Ovum, will deliver the keynote at the seminar, examining how service providers can leverage new and emerging technologies to meet rising demands for capacity and speed. Other industry luminaries will lead topic-framing panel discussions, including thought leaders from the Broadband Forum, The Fiber Broadband Alliance, and Light Reading.

"Over the past year, the Broadband Forum's BASe series has become a must-attend event for the communications industry, delivering unprecedented insight to the end-to-end broadband ecosystem," said Geoff Burke, Chief Marketing Officer at the Broadband Forum. "The previous seminars have been attended by more than 1,000 people, and with top speakers featured in the just-released agenda, the seminar in Las Vegas promises to take the BASe series to new heights."

Broadband Forum BASe Chair Bernd Hesse added: "Seminars like BASe are essential, not only as reference points for the current state of the industry, but as mechanisms that stimulate collaboration and innovation from participants and act as a catalyst in realizing the huge potential of 5G, the cloud and virtualization. As a premier educational event for the broadband industry, BASe provides an invaluable opportunity to learn from industry experts about where the market is heading and what challenges lie on the road ahead."

BASe Las Vegas – which will take place at the Encore Hotel in Las Vegas on Sunday, October 28 – will begin with Kunstler's keynote which will set the stage for the remaining line-up to delve deeper into a range of critical topics, including 10Gbps broadband, NG-PON2, fiber extension, cloud services, the connected home and 5G. Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh will also share updates on the Broadband Forum's innovative work areas and provide insight into the development of its work in building standards, reference architectures, and data models for the future of the broadband industry. 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), developments in the Forum's Cloud Central Office (CloudCO), Software Defined Access, User Services Platform (USP) and Open Broadband projects will be among the ongoing work explored.

Broadband Forum is the communications industry's leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development. Our members' passion – delivering on the promise of broadband by enabling smarter and faster broadband networks and a thriving broadband ecosystem.

A non-profit industry organization composed of the industry's leading broadband operators, vendors, and thought leaders, our work to date has been the foundation for broadband's global proliferation and innovation. For example, the Forum's flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has nearly 1 billion installations worldwide.

Broadband Forum working groups collaborate to define best practices for global networks, enable new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establish technology migration strategies, and engineer critical device, service & development management tools in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models, interoperability and certification in the broadband market.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to http://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or brian.dolby@proactive-pr.com or Jayne Brooks on +44 (0) 1636 704 888 or jayne.brooks@proactive-pr.com.

About BASe

Run by the Broadband Forum, the Broadband Acceleration Seminar (BASe) series aims to provide attendees with a whole new perspective on what is being created for broadband providers and users alike. Delivered by the leaders in the industry, many of whom are active participants in the Forum's work, the seminars cover a wide range of subjects including virtualized Broadband, cloud services, the managed home, 5G wireless/wireline convergence, and the latest in high speed access technology, enabling providers to deliver a new generation of differentiated services.

... New capabilities and increased robustness of the BBF's User Services Platform ...

Broadband Forum Plugfest advances USP, the evolution of TR-069, ahead of first public demonstration Fremont, Calif. - October 2, 2018: New capabilities and increased robustness of the Broadband Forum's User Services Platform (USP) have been successfully tested at a Plugfest, accelerating interoperability in the rapidly changing connected home market.

An evolution of the Broadband Forum's almost ubiquitous TR-069 standard which has nearly one billion installations worldwide, USP brings a unified, common approach to implementing, deploying and managing all types of devices in the modern connected home. The latest Plugfest brought together leading industry innovators, including ARRIS International plc, Nokia, QA Cafe and first-time participants Axiros and Greenwave Systems, with interoperability achieved across all participants' products.

Highlights of the session included the use of validation tools provided by QA Cafe and the testing of a Greenwave Systems' gateway with IoT proxy capability on a smart light that was managed and controlled via USP. Interoperability was also achieved through a proxy element that allowed a STOMP-based USP Controller to actively communicate with a CoAP-based USP Agent.

"In this second USP Plugfest, we laid the foundations of conformance and testing which will, in turn, enable the creation of interoperable, reliable and robust solutions," said Jason Walls, Co-Director of the Broadband User Services (BUS) Work Area at Broadband Forum and Director of Technical Marketing at QA Cafe. "The result will be greater and faster market adoption of USP by service providers, vendors, component manufacturers, and developers globally. That, combined with its backwards compatibility and ability to co-exist with TR-069, makes USP really revolutionary for everyone who is looking towards the future of the connected home."

John Blackford, Co-Director of the Broadband User Services (BUS) Work Area, member of the Broadband Forum's Board of Directors, and Product Management Director at ARRIS, added: "By achieving this level of interoperability and industry collaboration, service providers using USP-derived solutions can overcome emerging complexities in home networking. These solutions comprise a modern, scalable platform that allows service providers to monetize a range of new services across Wi-Fi and IoT devices in the connected home."

Many of the industry's leading Auto-Configuration Server (ACS) vendors are embracing USP and are updating their TR-069 ACS solutions to support its expanded functionality, simplifying global service provider adoption. A further catalyst to adoption will be the ability of USP to support multi-tenant remote management, meaning that USP can complement any TR-069-compliant ACS. Thus, service providers can augment their TR-069-based management system with the powerful new features of a USP-based management system in a subscriber's home network, such as advanced home Wi-Fi management or subscriber self-management, with solutions from different ACS vendors. Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) within the connected home can be upgraded to USP via a simple service provider managed software upgrade and can co-exist in the same subscriber home.

The Plugfest will be closely followed by the first-ever public demonstration of USP which will take place at Broadband World Forum, held at the Messe Berlin, in Germany, from Tuesday, 23 October through to Thursday, 25 October 2018.

A webinar – "An overview of the User Services Platform (USP/TR-369)" – will be held on Wednesday, 17 October at 3pm UTC. The webinar will be hosted by ARRIS and QA Cafe. To register, visit: https://goo.gl/jfkEpi.

For more information about the USP, including details of how to get involved in the project and participate in the next wave of "Plugfests" in 2019, visit: https://www.broadband-forum.org/projects/connected-user/user-services-platform.

The Broadband Forum's work defines best practices specifications and software for global networks, enables new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies and service management for the connected home, Cloud, access and 5G broadband ecosystem. There are more than 70 ongoing Technical Committee projects which embrace all relevant emerging technologies.

Taking on the role of Chief Marketing Officer, Burke brings a wealth of experience to the Broadband Forum team, including deep events expertise, extensive experience in the connected home market, and broad knowledge of carrier-grade Wi-Fi requirements. His initial areas of focus will see him continue to grow BASE, the Broadband Forum’s highly successful workshop series, work closely with the Forum’s newly formed Connected Home Council, and drive innovative projects such as Cloud Central Office (CloudCO).

“The industry is moving at an incredibly rapid pace, with virtualization technologies, the impending commercialization of 5G and explosion of IoT technologies,” said Kevin Foster, Chairman of the Broadband Forum. “In all of this, open standards play an important role in ensuring operators can take advantage of new applications and software while utilizing their current infrastructure. Geoff’s role will be key in driving this strategy forward and we are very pleased to have him on-board.”

Prior to joining the Broadband Forum team, Burke held various senior leadership roles at Calix for 14 years, including most recently Senior Director, Corporate Marketing. He also played a key role in pioneering the IPTV market as Marketing Director at Next Level Communications, led strategy consulting engagements at The McKenna Group and KPMG, and held various management roles at Oracle Corporation.

The Forum’s Q3 meeting – which is taking place this week in Montreal, Canada – gave Burke a chance to meet his new colleagues and see first-hand the developments taking place within the Forum, with projects such as Open Broadband initiatives, CloudCO and USP being worked on by members.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the Broadband Forum at what is an incredibly exciting time,” said Burke. “The potential of USP in enabling the connected home is enormous. Based on the unprecedented success of its predecessor, TR-069, which is rapidly approaching nearly 1 billion installations globally, I have every confidence that this will become an important standard for the industry. The Forum has a strong history of developing widely-adopted standards that catalyze mass deployment and I look forward to playing a leading role in the future of the Forum as it continues to innovate and evolve.”

The Broadband Forum’s Connected Home Council will bring together players in broadband access, smart home, in-home networking, Wi-Fi, and consumer electronic to advocate for a standardized, secure, easy-to-deploy, and monetizable connected home/business.

“With the recent release of our User Services Platform (USP) standard which evolves TR-069 for the connected home era, the Forum is entering a critical time and we are delighted to bring in someone of Geoff’s caliber to help drive this work forward,” added Robin Mersh, CEO at the Broadband Forum.

Fremont, California, August 22, 2018: The Broadband Forum today announced the first code release and documentation of its new Open Broadband project – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA) to enable standardized, automated and accelerated deployment of new cloud-based access infrastructure and services.

What differentiates this Open Broadband reference implementation is that it facilitates co-existence, seamless migration and the agility to adapt to an increasingly wide variety of software defined access models - the key business and operational challenge in creating a potentially vast market.

“OB-BAA enables operators to optimize their decision-making process for introducing new infrastructure based on user demand and acceptance instead of being forced into a total replacement strategy,” said Robin Mersh, Broadband Forum CEO. “By reducing planning, risks and execution time, investment in new systems and services can be incremental.”

As a freely-published, open source project, OB-BAA specifies northbound interfaces, core components and southbound interfaces for functions associated with access devices that have been virtualized. It is this standardized, layered architecture designed for SDN automation that distinguishes it from other approaches. It removes the need for difficult deployment planning by decoupling the device and software implementation choices from business and market decisions.

An important and immediate use of OB-BAA is as an integrated layer in the Broadband Forum’s CloudCO project, as described in the published ‘CloudCO Architectural Framework (TR-384).’ OB-BAA also complements other industry initiatives and the work is being actively coordinated with related industry activities such as ONF.

“The first release of OB-BAA marks a major milestone for the industry,” said Tim Carey, Lead Technology Strategist at Nokia and Chair of the Broadband Forum’s BAA project. “It delivers an open reference implementation based on standards-compliant interfaces, that operators and vendors worldwide can use to develop and deploy interoperable cloud-based access networks more easily and quickly.”

Operators and equipment manufacturers involved in the project include Broadcom, BT, Calix, CenturyLink, China Telecom, Huawei, Nokia, Telecom Italia, Tibit, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL) and ZTE.

“OB-BAA is a very important reference implementation of Cloud CO,” said Binchao Lin, Access Network Architect at Huawei and VC of OB-BAA. “It is a project which is important to the entire broadband community.”

Fremont, California, June 20, 2018: Operators looking to quickly and cost-effectively deliver new 5G services are today a step closer to being able to do so, as the Broadband Forum and NTT successfully demonstrated the disaggregation of time-critical PON functions.

Launched with NTT last year, the PON Abstraction Interface for Time Critical Applications (TCAs) project looks at how Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) can be applied to Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) to eliminate the need for operators to rebuild an OLT from the preliminary stage of development, for example, a remake of the PON chip, which requires a large amount of investment. Time-to-market for new offerings, including support for 5G fronthaul interfaces and services for business users, is also accelerated.

The quick progress the project has made was showcased for the first time on the last day of the Broadband Forum’s Q2 meeting, where NTT demonstrated two scenarios – mobile and FTTH – where a future OLT could be optimized with Dynamic Bandwidth Assignment (DBA) software to significantly reduce latency to meet the stringent latency requirements of 5G fronthaul interfaces. This enables dense small cells to be accommodated cost-effectively by TDM-PON. A second DBA software could also be applied to OLTs in FTTH services that require high bandwidth efficiency.

“Time Critical Applications are essential to meet changing user behavior,” said Akihiro Otaka, Executive Manager at NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories at NTT. “The demonstration we have carried out at the Broadband Forum meeting is a significant step for the project as it shows how operators can cost-effectively upgrade OLTs via a software upgrade. Standardization in this area is essential as it will achieve a vendor-agnostic system and ensure mass deployment which is key to realizing agile and flexible next-generation broadband networks and the delivery of 5G.”

Following the successful demonstration, the Forum and NTT will now look at whether a cooperative interface, which controls the TCAs shown in the demonstration, can be established between the Central Unit in mobile networks and an OLT. This will involve coordination with standards defining organizations such as 3GPP and CPRI and IEEE.

The Forum’s meeting, which took place in Osaka, Japan, last week also saw the Forum elect a new Technical Committee Chair. Lincoln Lavoie, of UNH-IOL, will take on the position and aims to further advance next-generation work within the Forum, including projects around 5G, CloudCO and User Services Platform (USP).

A joint workshop between the Forum, FSAN and ITU-T was held immediately after the Q2 meeting on Friday, June 15. This saw discussion around future expectations, NG-PON deployment plans, ONU certification vOLT standardization, PON convergence and the Broadband Access Abstraction project.

“Consumer demand, in regard to both quality of service and types of applications being used, is advancing at a rapid pace – the speed of which is being matched by how quickly new technologies and concepts are being developed,” said Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh. “As we hurtle towards this new era of broadband connectivity, the work we are doing within the Forum remains key, but as fixed and mobile networks converge, it is more important than ever that this work is not done in silos. Industry-wide collaboration will ensure the interoperability we are enabling does not end at a certain point in the network but encompasses the whole architecture to create an open broadband infrastructure.”

Fremont, California, May 29, 2018: Fiber and cable networks are dominating the global broadband market, with the technologies now servicing 77% of fixed subscriptions, new figures from Point Topic have revealed.

According to the Global Broadband Statistics, which take into account subscriptions up to the end of 2017, more than 50% of people in more than 40 countries, including Singapore (97%), China (89%), United States (87%), and the UK (55%), are connected via full-fiber, fiber-fed copper or cable.

Speaking exclusively with the Broadband Forum, Point Topic Research Director Dr Jolanta Stanke said: “We are finding that customers across most global regions increasingly prefer faster broadband services delivered over fiber and cable platforms, as opposed to ADSL. This trend will continue as more bandwidth-hungry young consumers become paying decision makers, even though superfast 4G LTE and 5G mobile broadband services will compete for their wallets.”

Fiber-fed subscriptions – including Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), Fiber-to-the-Building (FTTB), Fiber-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC), Very High Bitrate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL), VDSL2 and Gfast – accounted for 57% of broadband subscriptions, with more than 530 million connections. Stanke agreed VDSL and Gfast were together largely responsible for the growth that fiber has seen, with more than 30 operators across all continents deploying or trialing Gfast.

“Gfast gives operators a more cost-effective variant of fiber that will be used by operators who want to upgrade their existing networks quicker and more easily,” she added. “This could enable them to serve more customers in less densely populated areas, where direct fibre investment is less economically feasible.”

In total, cable, including hybrid fiber-coaxial, accounted for 20% of all fixed broadband connections. According to the report, the latest standard of this technology is currently deployed across several markets, being especially popular in North America, and can deliver gigabit download speeds.

Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said the figures reflect the fact that new technologies that let operators deploy fiber deep into the network without having to enter buildings themselves are quickly moving from trials to mass deployment.

“If operators want to deliver competitive broadband services, maximizing their investments through the use of technologies like Gfast is vital,” said Mersh. “Expanding the footprint of their existing fiber networks in this way is cost-effective and delivers the gigabit speeds consumers crave. The growing trend towards fiber, whether its fiber-fed copper or full fiber, and cable deployments highlighted by Point Topic’s report confirms that the Forum’s work on interoperability and management of ‘fiber-extending’ technologies is vitally important.”

Our work defines best practices for global networks, enables new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies, engineers critical device, service & development management tools, in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models interoperability and certification in the Broadband market.

Fremont, California, April 17, 2018: The Broadband Forum today published its User Services Platform (USP) – a new standard for implementing, deploying and managing all types of devices in the broadband home.

For the first time, USP brings a unified, common approach to securely deploy, manage, and control network-aware consumer electronics, including home and enterprise Wi-Fi, Internet of Things (IoT), and more. This enables a vast number of devices from different suppliers to be integrated into service providers’ offerings, enabling them to offer new, revenue-generating services to end-users.

“As an evolution of the popular TR-069 standard, USP makes use of the same data models, but instead of simply having a single Auto Configuration Server, there are now many end points that control not only the devices but also individual executables on each one,” said Barbara Stark, of AT&T, USP Project Lead at Broadband Forum. “This means deployments with IoT devices, smart Wi-Fi, set-top boxes, and smart gateways can be controlled by anyone in the household, while permission levels for service providers can be created to allow any necessary updates or troubleshooting of the network and devices connected to it. Ultimately, we designed USP to be flexible, scalable and secure.”

With USP, service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and end-users can perform lifecycle management of connected devices and carry out upgrades, for example, for critical security updates.

Newly installed or purchased devices and virtual services can also be easily added, while customer support is improved by remote monitoring and troubleshooting of connected devices, services and home network links.

The specification enables secure control of IoT, smart home and smart networking functions and helps map the home network to manage service quality and monitor threats.

Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said: “TR-069 has seen great success, with 800 million TR-069 CPE WAN management protocol devices worldwide, and the time is right to move this into the hyper-connected, virtualized world and provide an evolved specification to enable the industry to provide for and monetize the opportunities presented by modern connected users and homes.”

Work on the USP specification was carried out by the Broadband User Services (BUS) Work Area which is led by Co-Directors John Blackford, of ARRIS International plc®, who is also a Broadband Forum board member, and Jason Walls of QA Cafe.

“This ground-breaking standard was made possible through the combined input of many of the world’s leading service providers who use TR-069 and the technical expertise of the BUS community, including participants from AT&T, Axiros, Google, Greenwave Systems, Huawei, NEC, Nokia, QA Cafe and ARRIS,” added Blackford.

To find out more about the USP specification, the motivation behind it and the promise it holds for the IoT, watch this video interview with Walls: https://youtu.be/dogt1Ewb9dw

ATHENS, GREECE, 29 March 2018: Pioneering work around Gfast, Open Broadband, in-premises broadband technologies and Fixed Access Network Sharing (FANS) has been recognized by the Broadband Forum, with three top accolades presented during its quarterly meeting.

Lincoln Lavoie, senior engineer and industry lead for the executive steering body at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) received a Distinguished Fellow Award for his substantial contributions to a wide range of successful Broadband Forum projects. These include the G-PON Certification Test Plan, the TR-069 Certification Testing Program, the Gfast Certification Testing Program, the formation of the Open Broadband Labs projects, and countless plugfest testing activities.

“As we develop broadband networks for future generations, these awards highlight some of the true innovation happening within the Forum and the personal achievements that go alongside,” said Kevin Foster, Chairman of the Broadband Forum. “Since we launched our Broadband 20/20 vision, the rate of progress has been incredible with the Gfast certification program and FANS specification among the significant developments. The dedication and commitment of our members is vital to our success. These latest achievements reinforce the importance of standardization in a rapidly evolving broadband ecosystem.”

Two Circle of Excellence awards were also presented. One went to Bruno Cornaglia, of Vodafone, who edited the groundbreaking TR-370 Fixed Access Network Sharing specification, which was completed last November, providing a revolutionary business model for the broadband industry. Cornaglia is currently editing the follow up WT-370 to add Software Defined Networking capabilities.

The second Circle of Excellence accolade was presented to Marcos Martinez, of Maxlinear, in recognition of his work on the first industry test plan for comparative tests between powerline in-premises broadband technologies (TR-208 – Performance Test Plan for In-premises Powerline Communications Systems). Martinez has also been integral to all projects around broadband in-premises heterogeneous connectivity, including technologies like G.hn, MoCA and Wi-Fi.

There were also numerous recipients of the Outstanding Contributor award which is made to individuals who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to make valuable contributions within the Forum’s Work Areas. The full list of recipients was:

Marco Spini, of Huawei, for work on a number of complex topics and providing an important liaison between the Forum and 3GPP.

Ludwig Pauwels, of Nokia, and Nick Hancock, of ADTRAN, for their contributions to the Common YANG project.

Yuanlong Jiang, of Huawei, for key contributions to Mobile Transport and Routing work.

Georgios Karagiannis, of Huawei, for work on the Cloud-based Central Office Reference Architecture Framework, now known as TR-384 CloudCO.

The Athens meeting also saw the annual elections take place, with Bernd Hesse, of Calix, and John Blackford, of Arris, voted on to the board. David Sinicrope, of Ericsson, Frank Van der Putten, of Nokia, Kevin Foster, of BT, and Mauro Tilocca, of Telecom Italia, will also continue to hold their positions on the board after they were re-elected.

“The expertise and experience of our members is vital as we continue to evolve broadband networks and deliver next-generation broadband,” said Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum. “Without our work, mass deployment of new technologies such as Gfast would happen at a much slower rate, impacting those that depend on such methods for access to high-speed broadband.”

... BASE event at OFC 2018 will examine NG-PON2 and its readiness for deployments ...

Fremont, California, March 1, 2018: The success of NG-PON 2 will depend on the availability of low cost, reliable, tunable optics, especially as Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Terminal (ONT) shipments begin to increase, according to Ovum analyst Julie Kunstler.

This is the message Kunstler will deliver at the Broadband Forum’s BASE San Diego event, which will be held during the OFC Conference in San Diego on Thursday, March 15 from 8.30am to 3.30pm. The workshop will provide an update from the Forum’s NG-PON2 Council on the technology’s development, advantages, standardization and readiness to be used in the deployment of next-generation access networks.

“Low cost, reliable, tunable optics are a key piece of the NG-PON2 ecosystem,” said Kunstler. “These optics are available today and the vendor supplier base is growing alongside announcements of NG-PON2 equipment deployments. Ovum has been following the development of the NG-PON2 market with initial coverage on its ability to support both residential and non-residential customers and applications.”

Kunstler will also tell delegates at the BASE event that OLT and ONT shipments will begin to ramp up this year, with Ovum’s PON equipment forecast for 2018 to 2023 showing significant Compound Annual Growth Rates (CAGRs).

Operators, service providers and vendors will join Kunstler to present at the event, with the full line-up of companies taking part as follows:

· Accelink Technologies

· Adtran

· Athens Information Technology Center

· Bifrost Communications

· Calix

· CommScope

· Corning

· Fiber Broadband Association

· Hisense-Ligent

· Lightron

· NTT

· Ovum

· Picadvanced/UA

· Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

· Tibit Communications

· Verizon

The BASE workshop aims to educate the broadband industry as operators look to move to next-generation PON infrastructures. Key topics which will be covered include the forces driving all-fiber deployments, the components market, standardization, optics and photonic integration approaches, and the latest developments in wavelength flexibility.

Bernd Hesse, Chairman of BASE and the Broadband Forum’s NG-PON2 Council, and Sen. Director Technology Development at Calix, said: “As NG-PON2 has achieved several industry milestones in recent months, BASE San Diego will provide an update on the technology’s growing maturity, including insights on the applications and use cases driving the market. This event not only provides a great opportunity for education and collaboration among the leading operators and NG-PON2 technology providers, but it also plays an incredibly important role in furthering the development of the standards-based approach of NG-PON2 as mass deployments begin this year.”

Our work defines best practices for global networks, enables new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies, engineers critical device, service & development management tools, in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models interoperability and certification in the Broadband market.

Run by the Broadband Forum, BASE is an all-new series of public workshops which aim to provide attendees with a whole new perspective on what is being created for broadband providers and users alike. Delivered by the leaders in the industry, many of whom are active participants in the Forum’s work, the workshops cover a wide range of subjects including virtualized Broadband, cloud services, the managed home, 5G wireless/wireline convergence, and the latest in high speed access technology, enabling providers to deliver a new generation of differentiated services.

About Ovum

Ovum is a market-leading data, research and consulting firm focused on helping digital service providers and their technology partners thrive in the connected digital economy. Through its 150 analysts worldwide, it offers expert analysis and strategic insight across the IT, telecoms, and media industries. Founded in 1985, Ovum has one of the most experienced analyst teams in the industry and is a respected source of guidance for technology business leaders, CIOs, vendors, service providers, and regulators looking for comprehensive, accurate, and insightful market data, research, and consulting. With 23 offices across six continents, Ovum offers a truly global perspective on technology and media markets and provides thousands of clients with insight including workflow tools, forecasts, surveys, market assessments, technology audits, and opinion.

Ovum is part of the Business Intelligence Division of Informa plc, a leading business intelligence, academic publishing, knowledge and events group listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Barcelona, Spain – February 27, 2018: The 28 billion devices expected to be connected to 5G will never achieve full functionality through wireless networks alone and must be backed by a world-class fixed network, according to Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh.

Speaking during Mobile World Congress 2018, Mersh warned that the transport network is in danger of being overlooked, with industry talk and innovation currently focusing on radio capabilities and the services 5G could realize.

“So, to answer the question: what’s fixed got to do with 5G? The answer is: everything! At some point, the radio ends and the network begins and it is at this juncture that all of 5G’s advantages – including increased capacity, higher performance and improved speeds – must be maintained by that infrastructure,” said Mersh. “It is the transport that enables this. To deliver on the promise of 5G and meet consumer expectations, convergence between fixed and mobile networks is a must. This is why the Forum’s new work on both 5G wireless-wireline convergence and 5G transport is an important contribution to 5G’s success.”

Standardization, he said, will enable the growth required, with capacity, performance, reliability, scalability and security being key areas that the Broadband Forum is currently focusing on.

“In addition, enhanced resiliency, advanced routing techniques and time synchronization to the mobile RAN and core network is important to enable new and advanced services,” added Mersh.

The Forum is building momentum for a co-existent strategy, addressing transport network enhancements to support 5G, Wi-Fi as last mile for broadband access, small cells, hybrid access (dual access), functions between wired and wireless networks that may be instantiated as a common element, wireline and wireless network interworking and convergence at the transport, service and customer levels.

These projects reinforce the Forum’s commitment to developing technical specifications addressing the fixed broadband system evolution required for 5G, while considering migration and operational integration. This is being done in close cooperation with 3GPP and other select global organizations.

In December, the Forum also announced it is working on a landmark project with NTT to standardize the virtualization of operators’ PON networks to support the delivery of Time Critical Applications, such as some types of 5G fronthaul.

... 14 companies and organizations have joined in the last few months ...

Fremont, California, February 19, 2018: Pioneering development work in 5G, CloudCO and network virtualization was today cited by Kevin Foster, Chairman of the Broadband Forum as one of the key reasons for its growth in 2017, with the announcement of a further 14 new members.

Operators and vendors, as well as fellow industry bodies and national associations, are among the new sign-ups, demonstrating the breadth and relevance of the Forum’s work across the whole broadband industry.

“This year has seen a significant increase in membership which reflects the growing role of fixed networks in emerging technologies such as 5G and the Internet of Things, leading to a movement towards a more holistic converged network,” said Foster. “These are key areas of focus for us, along with bringing greater efficiency to operators’ networks through virtualization technologies which can also enable new business opportunities.”

Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum, said: “With further work planned for 5G, Cloud CO, Smart Home (including In-home networking), new access technologies, and plugfests in areas including Gfast and NG-PON and the continuation of our hugely successful Broadband Access Summit Events, 2018 is shaping up to be an exciting year for the Forum.”

“We see joining the Broadband Forum as a critical move in our quest to increase broadband penetration in Ghana,” said Gustav Tamakloe, Chief Executive Officer of the Broadband Communications Chamber of Ghana. “Membership of the Forum puts us at the cutting edge of technological innovation and development and ensures we are in the best possible position to help deliver fast, affordable broadband for Ghana.”

MoCA opted to join the Forum to utilize its data modelling and management standards for integration into its fiber extension technology, MoCA Access™.

“Building strong partnerships with other organizations is a key part of MoCA’s strategy, enabling it to share available resources and subject matter expertise in the pursuit of open standards,” said Charles Cerino, President of MoCA. “The Broadband Forum’s reputation for technology development and innovative specifications meshes perfectly with our goals and we anticipate a productive collaboration.”

MoCA® technology is the fastest and most reliable in-home backbone for Wi-Fi®--as proven by numerous field tests--and has been adopted by cable, telco/IPTV and satellite operators worldwide. MoCA 2.0 offers actual data rates of up to 1 Gbps. MoCA 2.5 offers actual data rates up to 2.5 Gbps in addition to a variety of network management and security features.

MoCA Access™ is a fiber extension technology based on the MoCA 2.5 specification and is intended for MDUs, hotels and resorts, and any building with existing coaxial cabling.

The Alliance has 223 certified products and 35 members worldwide.

About Broadband Communications Chamber of Ghana

The Broadband Communications Chamber (BBCC) was established to achieve the objectives of creating a private, voluntary, business organization researching and advising on broadband use, policy and regulation for economic development. To encourage the accelerated use of true broadband and to increase Broadband penetration targets and develop capacity in the broadband industry.

The Chamber's Mission is to be a lobbying group for the development and expansion of the broadband industry in line with Global trend and Government's intention of rapid penetration and development of broadband.